


There Are People Who Love You

by Terr



Series: Prompt Requests [2]
Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Angst, Deathbed Confession, F/M, mentions of dying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:27:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27816799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terr/pseuds/Terr
Summary: This is an alternative version of events in Chapter 11 (Book 2) in which Chiara slips into coma before the antidote is created.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Series: Prompt Requests [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032390
Kudos: 15





	There Are People Who Love You

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt request: “There are people who love you, you know”

All her life Chiara believed that leaning into someone, with her head on their chest and her palm pressed into the part of their body beneath which their heart laid, all she could be was relaxed.

Only now, with maitotoxin playing the main role in her body, she was proven wrong. As she leaned into Ethan, her arm wrapped around his chest, she could feel the muscles in her body protest. The little muscles she usually paid no attention to, those were now screaming with pain, the tension in them unbearable.

And so as much as she hated to do so, she asked Ethan is he could just sit next to her so that her whole body could lay down on a flat mattress, without any of her annoying little muscles burning.

Chiara was weak. She could feel her strength leaving her body with every soft ‘tick’ coming from the clock on the wall.

Ethan would never say it out loud, but he could see it too. He could see her energy, the energy that made her _his Rookie_ , disappearing into the thick air surrounding them.

“You can’t give up now, Chiara, okay? You are going to be okay.”

He didn’t believe himself at this point. There was not a single indication of the possibility that she could every be okay again.

Looking down at Chiara’s rueful smile, he knew that she didn’t believe his words either.

However, even then, while seeing the finish line of her life, she was capable of the graciousness so typical for her and nodded.

“I am going to be okay,” she whispered and they both knew that she wasn’t talking about being alive.

“I am serious, Ray. There are people who need you. People who rely on you. People who love you. You need to be okay and be there for them.”

Ethan could see how much pain she was in and how she didn’t want to go on anymore. He despised himself for pushing her into staying awake and alive by playing with her emotions, but if it helped, if Chiara pulled through this because she didn’t want to let _others_ down, he could live with despising himself.

“Are you one of those people? Who love me?”

She wouldn’t normally ask him. But what did she have to lose now?

Ethan didn’t want to response.

Saying that he wasn’t one of those people would be a lie and a damnable one.

Confessing his love to her while she was on her deathbed was something that never occurred to him, not even in his worst nightmares.

“I am,” he nodded after a moment of silence, squeezing her hand softly.

God, how he wished she could feel his skin.

“I’ve gotten Ethan Ramsey confess his love for me,” Chiara grinned with her last remnant of strength. “What a way to go.”

“I will take that back in an instant if it helps you hold onto your life longer.”

Chiara shook her head slightly and wanted to smirk at his _rude_ remark, but she couldn’t anymore. Everything just hurt so damn much.

 **“In your life, there are people who love _you_ , you know,”** she managed to whisper after taking several ragged breaths. “I need you to remember it when-“

“Stop it,” he warned her.

Ethan knew where she was going and he couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t let her say it.

Chiara looked him straight into the eyes and for a moment, the world felt normal. Her whole body was damaged and pained, but not her eyes. Her eyes were as determined and bright as ever.

The blue of his eyes was the last thing she wished to see before she closed her own eyes without an expectation to open them again.

“I need you to rely on the people who love you when I-“ he voice was a whisper now. Whisper full of both, physical and emotional pain.

“Chiara, _please,_ stop,” Ethan’s voice cracked as he pleaded.

He failed her. He failed her mother and her sister and her friends. He failed himself. She was dying and he, the great Ethan Ramsey, had no tool in his hands that could reverse that sick reality.

“…when I am not here to remind you that I am one of those people.”

She finished it. He _begged_ her not to and she finished the sentence.

Her hand slipped out of his and fell down on the bed with a soft thud. Her lips were parted and if he squinted his eyes just right, his mind could still create the image that she was smiling softly.

Ethan knew what was happening. He knew what he was supposed to do, he knew he should have paged the team, he _knew._

But he didn’t do any of it.

“Chiara, no. No, no, no… Chiara. _Chiara!_ ”

Instead, he gripped her shoulders and started to shake Chiara’s motionless body violently, much more violently than he would normally do.

He kept shaking her form and screaming her name until the back of his throat burned, until June and Baz stepped into the room and took her away.

Until he was left alone and the realization of his ominous failure downed on him.

And Ethan Ramsey has never hated anyone as much as he hated himself at that moment.


End file.
